You are here:
High-resolution mobile monitoring of carbon monoxide and ultrafine particle concentrations in a near-road environment
Citation:
Hagler, G., E. D. Thoma, AND R. W. Baldauf. High-resolution mobile monitoring of carbon monoxide and ultrafine particle concentrations in a near-road environment. JOURNAL OF AIR AND WASTE MANAGEMENT. Air & Waste Management Association, Pittsburgh, PA, 60(3):328-336, (2010).
Impact/Purpose:
AWMA journal aarticle
Description:
Assessment of near-road air quality is challenging in urban environments which have roadside structures or elevated or cut road sections that may impact the dispersion of emissions. Emissions from vehicles operating on arterial roads also contribute to air pollution variability in urban areas. In order to characterize the nature of near-road air quality in a complex urban environment, an instrumented all-electric vehicle was deployed to perform high spatial- and temporal-resolution mapping of ultra fine particles (UFPs, particle diameter <100 nm) and carbon monoxide (CO). Sampling was conducted in areas surrounding a highway in Durham, North Carolina, with multiple repeats of the driving route accomplished within a morning or evening commute time frame. Six different near-road transects were driven, which included features such as noise barriers, vegetation, frontage roads, and densely built houses. Under downwind conditions, median UFP and CO levels in residential areas located 25-150 m from the highway were a factor of 1.6 and 1.2 higher, respectively, than in areas characterized as urban background. Sampling in multiple near-road neighborhoods during downwind conditions revealed significant variability in absolute UFP and CO concentrations as well as in the rate of concentration attenuation with increasing distance from the highway. During low speed meandering winds, regional UFP and CO concentrations nearly doubled relative to crosswind conditions; however, near-road RFP and CO levels were higher than the urban background by a factor of 1.2 and 1.3, respectively .
